ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraq and other regional countries were informed of the US’ attack on Iran only after American jets had “safely" gotten out of Iran, the Pentagon chief told reporters on Sunday.
“They were notified after the planes were safely out,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said, adding that American “B2s went in and out of these nuclear sites, in and out and back without the world knowing at all, in that way it was historic."
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for his part, said no advanced warnings had been given to the regional countries.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday announced that they had joined Israel in striking Iran, targeting the country's main uranium enrichment facilities in Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow.
In an Address to the Nation following the strikes, the American president said they had carried out “massive precision strikes” on the three key nuclear facilities. “Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.”
“Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been obliterated,” Hegseth said, adding, “the mission was not, or has not been about regime change in Iran."
Hegseth added that the scope of their operation on Iran’s nuclear facilities was “intentionally limited. That is the message we are sending, with ith the capabilities of the American military nearly unlimited.”
US Joint Chiefs of Staff Caine, for his part, detailed that 125 US aircraft participated in the mission.
During the Pentagon press briefing, a map was shown that showed US B-2s that had flown over Iraq’s airspace into Iran.
Map displayed at a Pentagon press briefing shows US B2s having flown over Iraqi airspace into Iran during an attack that targeted the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities pic.twitter.com/9Fdkvlw1TV
— The New Region (@thenewregion) June 22, 2025
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned the United States on Sunday that it “must expect regrettable responses" to its “unprecedented” attacks on the country’s “peaceful” nuclear facilities.
Iran and Israel have traded fire over the past week, sparked by an extensive Israeli bombardment targeting Iranian nuclear and military facilities across the country. The US initially denied involvement in Israel’s attacks on Iran.
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